


It's No Good

by Gefionne



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Appropriate tags on each drabble/chapter, Drabble Collection, M/M, Mix of themes and ratings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:23:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 12,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7763044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gefionne/pseuds/Gefionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Kylux drabbles from tumblr prompts</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Congrats

**Author's Note:**

> Don't say you want me | Don't say you need me | Don't say you love me  
> It's understood  
> Don't say you're happy out there without me  
> I know you can't be | 'Cause **it's no good**
> 
> \- Depeche Mode, "It's No Good"

**Send me a "Congrats" and I'll write a drabble about their first anniversary**

 

“I hate this,” Kylo says, tugging at the gold belt at his waist. He stands in front of the mirror in the bedroom and glares at his reflection. He’s a vision in white, the robes hanging from his shoulders and down around his feet. His dark hair is drawn back from his face with gilt pins. There’s kohl lining his eyes.

Hux trails his fingertips along Kylo’s bare arm, down to where a golden cuff is clasped around his wrist. The metal is warm from his skin. “I know.”

“Then why are we doing it?”

“Because it’s expected of us,” Hux says. “We must give them a spectacle.”

Kylo looks no less displeased, but he cups Hux’s jaw, his thumb against the cheekbone that the emperor’s dressers have dusted with bronze powder. It gives some color to his face, they said, bringing out the bright green of his eyes. Hux had allowed it for the occasion.

“It shouldn’t matter to anyone,” Kylo says.

Hux gives him a look. “Of course it matters to them. The galaxy thrives on these displays. They want to see what you are to me.”

“They already know.”

“Yes,” Hux sighs, turning his head just slightly to press his lips against Kylo’s palm. “But do you not also want to be reminded?”

Kylo’s left hand goes to Hux’s waist, pulling him close. “I’m reminded every night when you come to bed, to me.”

Hux presses a kiss to Kylo’s neck, nips at the lobe of his ear. “The rest of the galaxy can’t see that. They need to see you by my side, know that you’re mine.”

“The ceremony before wasn’t enough?”

One galactic standard year prior, Hux had brought Kylo before the assembled court and declared him emperor’s consort. They had known that Kylo was an enforcer of sorts, imposing the will of the Empire on those who still deigned to resist, but on that day Hux had brought their bond into the open, bestowing Kylo with a symbol of Hux’s favor: a ring studded with blood red stones. Hux wore its twin.

“Indulge me,” he says as he presses a hand to Kylo’s chest. “Let me show you to them.”

“I’m not some prize to be exhibited.”

“Oh, but you are,” Hux says. “I’m envied for having you.”

Despite himself, Kylo preens at the praise. Pleased, Hux leans in and takes his lower lip between his teeth. Kylo trembles, his grip on Hux tightening.

“And they’ll see that I belong to you, too,” Hux says against Kylo’s mouth. “Don’t you want that?”

“Yes,” Kylo breathes.

“Then come. Let us show them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amazing [cylin-aka-ankamo](http://cylin-aka-ankamo.tumblr.com/) drew the outfit Kylo hates [here](http://gefionne.tumblr.com/post/147764320750/kylux-congrats). Check it out!


	2. Important

**Send me an "Important" and I'll write a drabble about one character explaining why the other is so important to them**

 

The shackles rub at his ankles where the thin fabric of his trousers has ridden up to expose the skin. They restrict his movement, and he nearly stumbles as he ascends the dais on which he’ll stand.

Across from him six people sit. They are his judges, holding whatever remains of his life in their hands. On this, the final day of his tribunal, they will hand down their verdict. He has no illusions about what it will be. He is already forfeit.

The forewoman calls the proceedings to order with two sharp snaps of a gavel and the whip’s crack of her voice. “Armitage Hux, you stand before us accused of grievous misdeeds perpetrated against the peoples of this galaxy. We have heard testimony from those who served under you in the First Order and those who witnessed your attack on the Hosnian System. We are prepared to offer judgement. Will you hear it?”

Hux opens his mouth, but before he can utter a word another voice, this one deep, resonant, and achingly familiar cuts through the silence in the room: “I would speak.”

The forewoman turns. “Ben Solo. You wish to be recognized by the court?”

Hux watches him moved down from the gallery. Hux has to fight every instinct he has, all of which scream for him to rise and go to him, to seek the embrace he’s been without for so long.

“I do,” says the simulacrum of Kylo Ren, this Ben Solo.

The judges lean in to deliberate, but it isn’t for long. The forewoman says, “Do you wish you give testimony against this man?”

“For him.”

Murmurs from the onlookers accompany the sharp pain in Hux’s chest. It is relief and gratitude, but it’s fear, too, for what reprisals Ben—Kylo, always Kylo—might face for this.

“Yours will be the only such testimony,” says the forewoman.

“I know.”

“Very well. You may proceed.”

Kylo takes a breath. “My word means little to you, I know, in the face of what I’ve done. You look at me with the same disgust you do him.” He extends a long arm toward Hux. “You call us murderers, monsters unable and unworthy of the redemption you believe we should seek. You expect us to break, to beg you to spare us the fate you’ve already decided on.” His expression darkens, his eyes flashing. “But you won’t get it. Not from me and not from him.”

Kylo turns to Hux. “I’ve never known a man like him. He opposed you, it’s true, and his convictions were not yours, but he believed them absolutely. He never faltered. He wasn’t without doubt, without fear, but he found the fortitude to persevere. He led with courage and earned respect. He’s a formidable soldier, and I was proud to stand beside him then and I am now.” He takes a step closer, reaching out a hand he knows Hux can’t take. “I gave myself to him, and in all that he did I was his accomplice. I am just as guilty as he is, and should suffer the same punishment.”

“Kylo, don’t do this,” Hux says.

“I am his accomplice!” he cries, holding out his wrists. “Shackle me, too. If he is condemned then so I am.” He pierces the forewoman, his mother Leia Organa, with his gaze. “Send me to my death, Mother, because I will not live without him.”

Hux crumples, his knees striking the hard wood of the dais. Warm arms come around him, and he’s home at last. “You have to let me go, Kylo.”

“I won’t let them have you. You mean too much to me.”

“Let me go.”

“Never.”


	3. Come Back

**Send me a "Come back" and I'll write a drabble about character asking the other to return (they parted after a fight, the other has been missing for a while, etc.)**

 

At first the presence is no more than a warmth at the base of Hux’s skull, not uncomfortable, but noticeable even as he goes about his duties. By the time he’s in the officers’ mess picking at his dinner, though, the heat has spread over the back of his neck, as if a hand rests gently there, just over the nape. He resists the temptation to rub at it. He has no intention of giving in, not after what happened.

“What?” he asks when he realizes the man across from him has been speaking.

“After yesterday, Lord Ren has been...absent. Things have been uncharacteristically quiet.”

Hux huffs a laugh. “Indeed they have.” The pressure on his neck increases, nearly making him flinch.

“Yet he’s still aboard?”

Hux nods. Ren’s shuttle remains in the hangar, and he has said nothing to Hux of requiring use of it. Not that he has to request permission to do so.

Hux doesn’t remain much longer at the table. He takes his half-empty tray and returns it to the wash station before finding the lift that will take him to his quarters. As he stands in it, watching the deck numbers flash by, he feels the heat moving to this shoulders. He stifles a sigh as the tension he’s been carrying there throughout the day eases.

As he moves about his quarters, shucking his uniform jacket and pouring himself two fingers of whiskey, there’s pressure along his spine, slowly dragging down to where his shirt is tucked into his trousers. He scowls and ignores it as he sits to look over the day’s reports.

After several hours the words begin to blur together; so much so, in fact, that for a moment Hux thinks he sees something else reflected in the surface of his datapad. A shadow lurks behind him.

“You know you’re not welcome here,” Hux snarls. A brush of phantom fingers at his jaw makes him start and curse. “Get out.”

Hux blinks his eyes several times to clear them and refocuses on the datapad. The report that he was reading has disappeared, though, replaced by two lines of text: “Come to me. I want you.”

Hux scoffs. “I don’t give a damn what you want.” Another passing touch at his lips.

The datapad reads: “How long are you going to deny yourself then?”

“You think I can’t go a full cycle without you? Spare me, Ren. I have no interest in seeing you after last night.”

The typed reply: “We disagreed. We always disagree. It doesn’t change anything. Come to me.”

“No,” Hux says firmly.

The text clears and is replaced: “Then let me come to you.”

Hux doesn’t bother to reply. Ren has his answer. Getting up, Hux goes to the refresher to wash his face and clean his teeth. When he emerges, he considers going straight to bed, but as he passes his desk he finds himself picking up the datapad again.

The text: “I was out of line. It will not happen again.”

As Hux looks down, three new words appear: “Come to me.”

“No,” he says aloud. A pause and then, “You come here.”

The cursor on the screen blinks for a moment before the text appears: “You forgive me?”

“Yes,” Hux sighs. Somehow he always does.


	4. Guardian

**Send me a "Guardian" and I'll write a drabble about one character swearing to always keep the other safe**

 

“Leave the base at once and come to me with Kylo Ren.”

The Supreme Leader’s voice continues to echo in Hux’s mind as the drop shuttle skims along the fracturing surface of Starkiller Base. Hux braces himself between the pilots’ seats, looking at the screen set into the console, where a red dot indicates the location of the tracking device Hux had placed in Ren’s belt six weeks before.

“Keeping your eye on me, general?” Ren had said, a sly smile playing at his lips. He had been lying in Hux’s bed, his left arm behind his head.

Hux was sitting at the edge of the mattress, pressing the tracker into the leather of the belt he had retrieved from the floor. Ren had dropped it without ceremony, hurriedly undressing while Hux watched from behind his desk. Ren hadn’t let him remain there for long, though, stalking over in long strides, spinning Hux’s chair, and yanking him to his feet. Curling his fingers around the back of Hux’s neck, Ren had pushed him down across the top of the desk and had him there.

“If you can’t be relied upon to report at regular intervals when planetside,” Hux had said when he had successfully installed the tracker, “then I must find another way to locate you.”

Ren had stretched languidly across the rumpled sheets, unabashed in his nakedness. “Are you concerned about me?”

Hux had huffed. “Like any other asset of value to the Order, while you are aboard my ship it’s my responsibility to see that you return from your missions. This is a means to that end.” An arm had snaked around his middle, the fingers of Ren’s hand splayed out across Hux’s stomach.

“Admit it, Hux,” he had said. “You want me to come back because you want me here in your quarters, your bed, you.”

“You’re an arrogant ass.”

Ren had laughed and pulled Hux back into his arms.

“There,” Hux says, gesturing out the shuttle’s forward viewport. A prone figure was lying in the snow, the white spattered with red. “Set down near him.”

Hux makes for the airlock, springing down through the opening door. He nearly slips as his boots strike the ground, but he manages to get to Ren’s side. The breath sticks in his lungs as he sees the long wound across Ren’s face.

“Kylo,” Hux yells over the noise of the shuttle’s engines. He struggles to get his hands under Ren to lift him up. “Kylo, wake up. We have to get out of here.”

Ren’s eyes open a crack. “Hux?”

“Get up. This planet is collapsing.”

Ren doesn’t seem to hear him, and he lifts a gloved hand to Hux’s face. “You came for me.”

Hux wants to say that he’s just doing his duty, just doing what the Supreme Leader commanded, but he can’t. “You shouldn’t have been out here alone. You should have had a detail—”

“I don’t need your troopers.”

“The hell you don’t.”

Despite his ruined face, the corners of Ren’s mouth twitch. “You want me protected.”

“Since you won’t take care of yourself, it seems I must.” He gets his arm around Ren’s shoulders and helps him to his feet. “And stars help me, Kylo, I will. I always will.”


	5. Undress

**Send me a "Undress" and I'll write a drabble about one character watching the other get naked**

 

Uncle Luke said that coercion was the coward’s weapon, that a Jedi only used it when there was no other choice. Manipulation of the mind carved a path to the Dark Side, so Ben had suppressed the natural gift he had for it. He had even been ashamed. But Ben’s destruction had freed him of that guilt.

Kylo Ren wielded it like he did any other weapon: mercilessly and without restraint. He could make soldiers turn on their own with a word and a gesture, pass unhindered through heavily guarded encampments. That power only served to prove that the Light was weakness, a pathetic shadow of what the Dark made him capable of. He used it to take what he wanted.

For months Kylo had been watching him: General Hux, striking in his authority and determination to destroy the Republic. He was in so many ways all that Kylo was not. His control of both himself and his subordinates was absolute, and he did it employing nothing more than his will. Kylo could exert his influence over anyone weak-willed enough to be coerced, but it was by means of the Force. Hux required no such tools. It fascinated Kylo just as it frustrated him. He wanted to know if Hux could be broken, controlled. Tonight, Kylo resolved to test him.

“Ren. To what do I owe this visit?” Hux didn’t bother to look up from his datapad as he spoke.

Kylo’s temper flared at being disregarded, but Hux’s inattention afforded him the opportunity he required. Raising his right hand, Kylo said, “You will rise and come stand before me.”

Hux turned his eyes up then, cocking a contemptuous brow. “What did you say?”

Kylo gave the command again. Hux remained seated for the space of a breath, but then his chair slid back and he got to his feet. He came around his desk until he was standing across from Kylo.

“What—”

“You will remain silent.”

Hux’s mouth closed.

Slowly, Kylo appraised him. He stood straight, his shoulders square and hands at his sides. He was in full uniform still despite the late hour. Kylo had never seen him without it.

“You will take off your jacket.”

Hux’s fingers went to the fastenings and slowly released them. He shrugged the jacket over his shoulders and let it fall to the floor. He wore a black undershirt beneath it, the fabric tight over his narrow chest.

“Now the shirt,” Kylo said.

Hux obeyed. His skin was light, his nipples pink. He stared at Kylo, impassive and awaiting further instruction.

It should have been enough; Kylo had succeeded. And yet, he found himself saying, “You will remove your boots and pants.”

He watched as Hux did it, tugging his boots off and then methodically unbuttoning his trousers. He slid them down his legs and stepped free of them. His thighs were narrow, but not without the smooth contours of muscle. Kylo clenched his fists to keep from reaching out to trace them, to feel the soft red-gold hair on his palm.

“Take off the rest.”

Kylo’s chest constricted as Hux removed his standard issue shorts and black socks. When he stood bare, Kylo stared unabashedly. Hux was all soft lines, his skin unblemished by the scars that cut across Kylo’s chest.

“You will let me touch you,” Kylo said. He pulled off his gloves and dropped them onto the corner of Hux’s desk. With only the slightest tremor, he reached out to trace Hux’s collarbone. He stood still as Kylo explored him. He was warm and just as silky as Kylo had imagined.

Tracing his mouth with his fingertips, Kylo leaned close. He wanted to taste him. He had already gone too far; there was no reason he couldn’t take this last thing. But as he moved in, he hesitated.

“You aren’t really going to stop now, are you?”

Kylo reared back, his eyes widening. “You’re aware.”

“Of course, I am,” Hux said. “You think I’d really fall for your tricks?”

“Then why—”

Hux raised a hand to Kylo’s cheek. “I never do anything I don’t want to do, Ren. Now undress. I want to see you.”

As if compelled, Kylo did.


	6. He Was Livid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for a starting sentence meme, where I was given the sentence to start with. For this one I was given: "He was livid, and the source for his anger stood at the end of the hallway, innocently blinking at him."

He was livid, and the source of his anger stood at the end of the hallway, innocently blinking at him.

“The Supreme Leader was clear, Ren. You are not to leave this ship without my express permission. We’re in this system on  _ my  _ business, not yours.”

Kylo clenched his fists at his sides, stalking up to Hux where he stood with a datapad in his hand. He looked down as Kylo approached, dragging his forefinger up the screen to scroll through whatever mundanities were displayed there.

“You can’t do that,” Kylo snarled. “I don’t answer to you.”

“In this you do.” Hux tucked his datapad under his arm and glanced up again. “Take it up with the Supreme Leader if you have a problem. But we’ll be out of this system in two cycles. Certainly you can manage to wait until then.”

The datapad clattered to the floor, its screen cracking, as Kylo pushed Hux against the bulkhead, his arm bared across Hux’s neck. “No. I’m going now.”

Hux look unperturbed despite the flush that was rising in his face as Kylo held him. “I’ve ordered your shuttle grounded. Your pilots are on temporary leave.”

“I can fly it,” Kylo said.

“It’s still not cleared to leave the hangar. Unless you plan to strongarm the entire control tower staff, you won’t be getting out.”

Kylo pushed harder, until Hux’s breath was coming up short. He maintained his composure, however. That only served to infuriate Kylo further. He hated Hux, hated his arrogance and his calm. He should have snapped at Kylo, shoved him away and fought back, but he never did. He just stood and waited, unaffected, for Kylo to back down. And Kylo always did. It was either that or kill the man, which would have displeased the Supreme Leader.

As Hux regarded him with impassive green eyes, Kylo wanted nothing more than to break him. Pulling his arm back, he allowed Hux a deep breath, but before he could exhale Kylo cut him off with a hard kiss. The startled noise Hux made sent a jolt of satisfaction through Kylo.

His left hand went to Hux’s waist, grasping at the fabric of his uniform coat. His right curled around the back of Hux’s neck, the leather of his gloves against smooth skin. Opening his mouth, he brushed the tip of his tongue against Hux’s lower lip before nipping at it. Hux hissed, attempting to pull away, but his head was already against the durasteel behind him. Unable to escape, he retaliated with a cruel bite, though Kylo managed to draw back before it could do any damage.

“Get off of me,” Hux growled. Kylo could feel his lips move against his own as he said it.

Kylo’s “No” was lost in Hux’s mouth as he delved into him again, his tongue sliding inside to brush Hux’s. He was waiting for the next snap of teeth, the taste of iron as he bled, but as he felt two cool hands slide up to his face, Hux opened for him.

The was no pretense in the kiss, only slick heat and insistence. Kylo leaned into it, pulled Hux closer to him until their chests met. Tendrils of desire curled in Kylo’s gut, spiraling out until his fingers burned with it. He wanted his gloves gone, the layers of robes cast aside so he could feel more. Feel everything.

When they broke, Kylo was breathing hard. Hux’s face was red, his lips wet with their saliva. Hungry, Kylo moved in to catch them again.

“This changes nothing.”

Kylo blinked. As far as he was concerned, it had just changed everything.

“You still can’t take your bloody shuttle out.”

Kylo scowled. “I can wait two cycles on one condition.”

Hux cocked a red-gold brow. “What?”

“Let me have you.”

“One kiss and you’d presume I would accept that?”

“You refuse?”

Hux’s nostrils flared, his eyes flicking down to Kylo’s mouth. “My quarters. 2200.”


	7. They Never Went This Far

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the starting sentence meme: They never went this far.

They never went this far. There were hurried embraces in alcoves, hands pushing aside the necessary clothing to reach the necessary places, mouths on what little exposed skin that afforded them. Yet, in the small conference room they occupied now—after the recent meeting had adjourned—Hux’s jacket had already been thrown onto the table, and Ren’s blunt-tipped fingers were releasing the buttons of his shirt. As he finished, he pulled it free of Hux’s trousers and dropped it to the floor. He had already removed his gloves, and his hands were warm against Hux’s stomach and chest. His lips and tongue were warmer yet.

Hux leaned back against the table, bracing himself on his flats of his palms. Ren pushed his knees apart until he could stand between them. Hux wanted to protest that this wasn’t the place for this, that anyone could come through the door and find them wrapped around each other, Hux’s hands fisted in Ren’s robes to hold him close as Ren sucked at Hux’s neck, but the words stuck in his throat.

“We have to be quick,” he managed to say, as he always did.

Ren gave a grunting sound of acknowledgment, but continued his leisurely exploration of Hux’s exposed skin. Hux curled his fingers in Ren’s hair, dragging him up to his lips. Ren sank into the kiss, his hands running down Hux’s sides to the waistband of his trousers. He traced it with his fingertips, deftly releasing the snap at the fly.

It was never an equal exchange in these encounters. Ren allowed Hux to touch him, but more often than not it was Hux alone who was seen to. It seemed that that was once again what Ren intended as he tugged Hux’s trousers down. Hux expected his hand; that was generally the way of things. But his stomach tightened with anticipation as Ren went down onto one knee and then the other. He blinked up at Hux once, twice, and then bent his head.

They never went this far, but Hux was certain that now that they had, there would be no going back.


	8. Flowers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting sentence prompts: "Why do you have flowers in your hair?"

“Why do you have flowers in your hair?” Kylo asks, reaching out to touch the purple and yellow blossoms woven into the crown that sits atop Hux’s head.

Hux slaps his hand away, scowling. He removes the crown and tosses it down onto the chaise. “It was the Adorian delegation. They insisted I take part in their fertility celebration. They pick flowers while they fertilize the eggs. It was far from charming.”

“Did they approve the trade deal?”

“Yes,” Hux sighs, loosening the ties that hold his golden cape over his right shoulder. “Even the tariff addendum.”

Kylo’s brows rise. “They gave up everything just because you wore some flowers?”

“Apparently it’s very good luck to have the emperor’s blessing for the year’s young.”

Kylo’s fingers replace Hux’s on the buttons of his double-breasted formal coat, deftly undoing them. “When are they leaving?”

“Tomorrow,” says Hux. “We’re both expected to be there to see them off.”

The corners of Kylo’s mouth turn down. “What do they want with me?”

“They don’t want anything. I do. I have no desire to face them alone again.”

Kylo pushes the coat over Hux’s shoulders. His palms are warm and lightly calloused. Hux tips his head back as Kylo runs them up the white column of his throat. His fingerpads trace the neatly trimmed edge of Hux’s beard.

“I would have come with you today had you asked,” he says, scratching his short nails into the red hair.

Hux closes his eyes, enjoying the feeling. “You had your own affairs to attend to. You still plan to leave in two days?”

“Yes.”

“The Knights will go with you?”

“All but two. They will stay here.”

Hux looks at Kylo again. “I have a full complement of guards.”

“I don’t trust them.”

“They’re thoroughly vetted before they even come near the palace.”

“You thought the same of your stormtroopers,” says Kylo darkly.

“That was one trooper out of thousands,” Hux says.

“All it takes is one guard.” Kylo holds Hux’s face between his hands. “I won’t risk that. The Knights will protect you.”

“And why shouldn’t they be guarding you? You’re just as valuable to the empire.” He grasps Ren’s wrist. “To me.”

“I want them here. Don’t fight me, Hux.”

Hux gives a curt nod. “Very well.” He crosses the distance between them and presses their lips together. “Don’t stay away too long.”

Kylo smiles. “I couldn’t.”


	9. Let Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the first sentence meme: "Let me."

“Let me,” Hux said, taking Ren by the wrist and drawing his hand away from his face. He had already pulled half of the stained bandage away from the wound, but he had done it so indelicately that the edges were beading with blood. Carefully, Hux removed the rest.

The skin was marred, but the flesh charred by the blade of the lightsaber had been trimmed away and the healing had already begun. It would scar, of course, and Ren had been sullenly refusing to look into a mirror since he had arrived back on the Finalizer. Perhaps Hux shouldn’t have been surprised by a bout of vanity. He himself would have struggled to accept it.

Hux had no scars, not even from the few falls he had taken as a boy. The bacta had knit his skin back to smoothness. But all of those had been abrasions, nothing like the deep cuts Ren had suffered. Hux hadn’t seen the worst of them, those on his side and shoulder. The medics had tended to them. They easily could have done the same for the cut on his face, but he had been complaining of the itch as Hux sat beside him and had begun to scratch at the gauze before Hux could summon anyone to help.

Reaching over to the table next to the bed, Hux retrieved the bacta salve. He anointed his fingers and began at the top of the wound. Ren hissed as the cool gel touched him, but he didn’t pull back.

“Is that all right?” Hux asked. Though he was keeping his touch gentle, it had to hurt.

“It’s fine,” Ren replied, his jaw clenched.

Hux worked in silence until he had reached to the edge of the cut. Wiping his hand, he set the salve aside.

“Why are you doing this?” Ren said.

“It needed doing, and I was here,” said Hux.

“But why did you come?”

“You’re in my charge. I must be sure that you’re convalescing.”

“The medics could give you a report.”

“They do,” Hux said, “but I wanted to see you for myself.”

Ren winced as his brows came together. “What does it matter to you?”

Hux blinked down at him, considering. He could lie, avoid the truth that he had been coming to realize over the past months, but he found that he didn’t have it in him. He wasn’t ashamed.

“I find myself concerned for you wellbeing,” he said. “That has been the case for some time now.”

Ren searched Hux’s face, perhaps for a sign that Hux was mocking him.

“You don’t believe me,” Hux said.

“How could I?” said Ren. “You dislike me. Strongly.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“You...care about me?”

“Bluntly put, yes. Does that displease you?”

Ren’s reply was hushed. “No.”

The tightness in Hux’s chest released. “Ah, well.” Sinking back onto the stool that stood beside the bed, Hux laid his fingers over Ren’s. “I’m relieved to hear that.”

Ren stared down at their hands. Slowly, he turned his over until their palms touched. He raised Hux’s hand and brushed his lips over the knuckles. “Stay with me a little longer?”

“As long as you like.”


	10. We're All Monsters Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're bored and are still doing the first sentence thing... "We're all monsters here."

“We’re all monsters here,” Hux said, stirring the whiskey in his glass around absently.

Kylo looked down at his own glass, untouched save for the first sip he took. The alcohol had burned down his throat and made his stomach lurch. He feared if he drank more he might vomit. He swallowed down the lingering taste, wishing for water to wash it away.

“You really believe that?” he asked.

Hux cocked a brow. “You don’t?”

Kylo wet his lips, hesitating. He had no illusions about what he had done. He had taken his power with each stroke of his saber as he cut Skywalker’s apprentices down. But did that make him a monster? Not when he did what was necessary for him to transform and to finish what his grandfather had started: destroy the Jedi. He had only a few more ties to sever—his mother, his father, his uncle—and he would be free.

“I believe we do what has to be done,” he said.

“For the glory of the Order,” Hux said, lifting his glass before drinking down the rest of the whiskey. As he set the empty tumbler down, he eyed Kylo’s. “You don’t like it.”

Kylo shook his head.

“You might have said as much before I wasted it on you.”

Kylo frowned and shoved the glass across the desk toward Hux. “You finish it.”

Hux made no move to take it. “I would offer you something else if I had it.”

“I don’t want anything else.” Kylo sat back in his chair, fingers curling around the ends of the arms. “What am I doing here, general?”

Hux picked up the glass Kylo had abandoned. “We’ve been serving together on this ship for three months and yet we’ve never had the opportunity to be in private. I wanted to remedy that.”

Kylo’s brows knit. “Why?”

“You intrigue me.”

Kylo balked, uncertain what to say. He watched as Hux moved his long fingers to the collar of his uniform jacket and released the button there. Kylo’s gaze lingered on the pale column of his throat. It was barely a flash of skin, but Kylo felt his pulse jump.

“You want to talk?”

“Not exactly.”

“What then?”

“Then let me be direct. If you will?”

Kylo gave a brief nod.

“Do you want to fuck me?”

Kylo’s mouth fell open. Whatever he had expected, it was not that.

“Well?” Hux asked, drinking down the rest of his whiskey. Kylo could see the muscles in his neck work as he swallowed.

“Yes,” Kylo said.

Hux’s smile was slow, predatory. “I had hoped that was the case.” Getting up, he came around the desk to stand at Kylo’s side. “I’m not keen on a careful seduction. It’s not in the nature of a creature such as myself. It wastes time that could be put to better use. Can you abide that?”

“Yes.”

“Then come, and show me your nature, Kylo Ren.”


	11. I Have A Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're still doing the first sentence ask meme, "Don't worry, I have a plan."

“Don’t worry; I have a plan,” the smuggler says, executing a high-speed turn that makes the freighter groan in protest.

“Crashing this ship is not a plan,” Hux says over the noise of blaster cannon fire.

They’re being pursued by the Trandoshan raiders who had descended when the arms deal Hux had been trying to facilitate had gone south. The First Order needed the ore the Trandoshans mined and the Order had the kinds of weapons they wanted. It should have been an easy exchange, but the Trandoshans had decided to double their price at the last minute. Hux and Kylo Ren, the smuggler he had contracted to transport the weapons clandestinely, had been forced to flee.

“Have a little faith, major,” Ren says, flashing Hux a white-toothed grin. “I’ve gotten out of worse scrapes than this.” An alarm shrilled.

“They have a lock on us,” says Hux. “We have to break or we’re dead.”

“You think I don’t know that? Do me a favor, major, and shut up.”

Hux grinds his teeth, but falls silent. Ren slams the throttle and the freighter dives into a canyon. The alarm goes quiet as they get out of range of the raiders’ cannons. Admittedly, Ren is an adept pilot, maneuvering his ship around the curves of the canyon deftly.

“Hold on tight, major,” he says. “We’re getting out of here.”

The ship’s bow pitches up at a sharp angle, and Hux is thrown back into his seat. They blast out of the canyon and into the sky. They spiral up through the lower atmosphere, leaving the raiders’ ships behind. As they clear the planet, Ren says, “Brace for light speed.” The stars around them blur as they jump away to safety.

Ren lets out a triumphant bark of laughter. “I told you I had a plan.”

“You did, yes,” Hux says. He unclips his restraints and rises.

Ren engages the autopilot and gets up as well. He saunters up to Hux, wearing his self-satisfied smile. “Come on, major, admit it. That was some impressive flying.” He hooks his thumbs in his belt. “Don’t I get a ‘thank you?’”

Hux frowns. “You did your job. I hardly need to thank you for it.”

Ren drags his teeth across his lower lip, leaning closer to Hux. “I’d say I did a little more that my job. We weren’t supposed to outrun a pack of angry Trandoshans. Not every pilot could have managed that.”

“A commendable effort, then.”

Ren cocks a brow. “Are you always like this?”

“Like what?” Hux asks.

“Stiff as a durasteel bulkhead.” His eyes flick down to Hux’s lips. “You should try to relax. I can help you with that.”

Hux opens his mouth to dismiss him, but Ren swallows his words as he kisses him. Hux freezes. Despite that, Ren moves his lips against Hux’s, gently parting them, pulling back slightly, and then moving back in. His hand snakes up to curl around the back of Hux’s neck. As his fingers slide into the hair at the nape, Hux shudders.

“That’s it,” Ren says, his breath warm on Hux’s face. “Relax.”

With a growl, Hux pulls him back to his mouth. He nips at his lower lip so that Ren opens for him. His tongue is slick and hot. He makes a low, satisfied sound.

When they break to catch their breath, Hux blinks at Ren, who looks a little wonderstruck. “Is that a satisfactory display of gratitude?”

“Give me about twenty more minutes of that and, yeah, that’ll satisfy.”


	12. The Box on His Desk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt meme: Hux entered his quarters and stopped in the doorway at the sight of a small box on his desk.
> 
> **This is the explicit one**

Hux entered his quarters and stopped in the doorway at the sight of a small box on his desk. It was perfectly square and black, embossed with a symbol in silver that Hux didn’t recognize. Brows knit, he went to it and traced the edge of the lid with his fingertip. Gently, he lifted it and looked inside. Coiled there was a length of red rope, soft to the touch, but tensile. He drew it out and wrapped some around his hand, pulling it taut. It reddened his skin, but didn’t damage it.

“There still might be bruises, but your clothes will hide them.”

Hux turned to face Ren, who was leaning against the aft bulkhead next to the refresher, barefaced and watching Hux intently. The outer layers of his robes had been shed already, leaving him in only an undershirt and trousers. His feet were bare.

“You know I don’t like marks,” Hux said.

Ren peeled himself away from the wall and padded over to Hux. “You’ll like this.” He leaned in, dragging the tip of his long nose along Hux’s cheek and up to his ear. “Let me do this for you.”

“I thought I was doing it for you. Under most circumstances I would not allow someone to bind me.”

“Oh, it’s for me, too,” said Ren. “Don’t doubt that.”

Taking Ren’s hand, Hux pressed the coil of rope into it. “Then do it.”

Hux undressed with care, taking time to hang his coat and trousers and place his boots in the small closet beside his bed. It was far from erotic, but he knew that Ren liked to watch him do it.

“Sit on the bed,” Ren said when Hux was finally bare. He complied, sliding over the blankets to the center of the mattress. Ren knelt beside him, sitting back on his heels. Taking Hux by the backs of the knees, he guided his legs up to his chest. “Spread,” he said. “Heels to your thighs.”

Hux swallowed and worked himself into the position. It wasn’t easy and it left him utterly exposed, but as Ren began to loop the rope around his ankles and then around his thighs, he found he could relax his muscles and rely on the knots to keep him in place.

“Fold your arms behind your back,” Ren said. He was surprisingly gentle with the ties, tightening the rope enough to hold Hux, but not so that it was painful.

As Ren moved away, Hux tested the bonds. They were solid, keeping him trapped with his ankles bound to his upper thighs and his arms tied in place at the small of his back. He watched Ren look him over appreciatively.

“Incredible,” Ren said, trailing a finger up the inside of Hux’s bared thigh.

Hux jumped at the contact, a shiver snaking up his spine. His cock, previously uninterested in the process of binding, twitched.

Ren smiled and reached between Hux’s splayed legs to take him in hand. He stroked him slowly, teasingly to hardness. Hux fought to roll his hips up into Ren’s grip, but the rope kept him restrained.

“Why are you still dressed?” Hux asked. “Aren’t you going to f—”

“No,” Ren replied, cutting him off with a deft twist of his wrist, making Hux groan. “I’m going to watch you like this.”

Hux arched his back, putting himself on display. “What if I want it?”

“I’ll give you my fingers. Nothing more.”

“Yes.”

“Open your mouth,” said Ren, pressing his two forefingers to Hux’s lips. Hux wet them with his tongue, running over the pads and knuckles. Ren withdrew them and then pushed back in, nearly making Hux gag. He tapped his nails against Hux’s upper teeth as he pulled free. “One or two?”

“Don’t toy with me, Ren,” Hux growled.

“Of course not, general,” Ren said as he pressed the cool, wet fingertips against and then into Hux. Hux cursed, straining against the rope. “I’ll free you if you want it.”

“No,” Hux said. “Keep going. Faster.”

Ren moved both of his hands in tandem, his fingers brushing the place inside Hux that had him gasping while Ren worked his cock with the other. The ropes were cutting into Hux’s flesh as he writhed, but he found the pressure satisfying in a way he hadn’t expected. There would be marks come morning, but he didn’t care, not when Ren was touching him as he was and watching Hux’s every reaction with hungry eyes. Hux let his own eyes close and relaxed his body into the hold of the bonds.

“That’s it,” Ren said. “Let go.”

The quiet command sent Hux over the edge. He cried out, white-hot pleasure spiking through him as he came over Ren’s hand and his own stomach. The ropes held him even as his body shook and twisted. He was grateful for them when it was over, when he was left feeling boneless and weak.

“Do you want me to untie you?” Ren asked after a time.

“Just a little longer,” Hux replied. “I...like this.”

“I knew you would.”


	13. Are You Coming Back?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prompt: "Are you coming back?"

“Are you coming back?” Hux says as he lies next to Kylo. “Later, I mean. Tonight.”

Kylo looks over at him, brushes a fallen strand of red hair back from his brow. “Do you want me to?”

Though it had been three Imperial standard months since Hux had first invited Kylo to his bed, he had never permitted Kylo to stay there through the night cycle. They had had each other in all manner of ways, from frantic and hard to slow and careful, but once they were finished, Hux allowed him to clean up in his refresher before sending him on his way.

This particular meeting had been out of the ordinary, however. Kylo had just returned from a mission planetside, and Hux had met him in the hangar bay.

“I need to speak with you,” he had said, standing at parade rest as Kylo approached him. “Privately.”

Kylo had followed him up to his quarters, where Hux had set upon him before the door was even closed all the way. Hux had torn at his cowl and robes, throwing them to the floor with abandon. Hux had barely gotten his own clothes off before he was on his knees on the bed, offering himself to Kylo. He had never done such a thing in the middle of the day cycle before.

“Would you prefer not to?” Hux asks in reply. “If you have other duties to attend to…”

“No,” Kylo says. “I’ll come back. If that’s what you want.”

“Mm,” Hux hums, tracing Kylo’s abdominal muscles with his fingertips. “I’d want you again now if we had the time.”

“We don’t?”

Hux shakes his head. “I have to be on the bridge in thirty minutes.”

Kylo leans in and presses his lips to Hux’s. “We could be quick.”

Hux looks at him with hooded eyes gone dark with desire. Kylo feels himself stirring even before Hux takes him in hand.

When they’re finished, Kylo watches Hux walk into the refresher. He hears the sonic for a few minutes. Hux emerges dressed.

He cocks his head as he looks at Kylo still sprawled on the bed, his hands behind his head. He lies atop the sheets, unashamed of his nakedness.

“You can stay here,” Hux says, “if you like.”

Kylo looks at him. Hux doesn’t seem the type to permit anyone to be in his space without him present. Kylo would have little to do if he stayed, but he had intended to spend the rest of the day cycle in meditation anyway. He could easily do that here.

“I will, then,” he says.

The corner of Hux’s mouth quirks up. He’s pleased at the notion, Kylo realizes.

“You like having me here?” Kylo asks.

“I do,” Hux says. “But if you’d rather keep on as we have—”

“No. I’ll stay.”

“Good. I’ll be back in several hours.” Walking to the bedside, Hux leans down and kisses Kylo’s mouth. When he’s gone, Kylo relaxes into the pillow and smiles.


	14. How Can You Stand It?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> would you do first sentence for kylux: "How can you stand it?"
> 
> **This one has mentions of non-con, but no actual non-con**

“How can you stand it?” Ren said, the snarl coming harshly through the vocoder in his helmet. “All the regulations, the rules. It’s suffocating.”

“It’s necessary,” Hux said. “An army needs discipline. You could do with some as well.”

“I’m not one of your soldiers.”

Hux sniffed. “Fortunately, no. Otherwise I’d have you flogged for insubordination.”

Ren reared back. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Seeing me beaten, bloodied.”

“I don’t take pleasure in pain, if that’s that you’re implying,” Hux said. “I do it because it’s necessary.”

“How many of your men have you whipped?”

“None myself.”

“But you’ve ordered it.”

Hux raised his chin. “Yes.”

“Do you watch?” Ren asked.

“I do.”

“At least you’re not weak enough to order it and then look away.”

“How dare you call me weak?” Hux snapped. His father’s words echoed in his head:  _ weak, pathetic, an excuse, an embarrassment. Shape up, boy, or you’ll amount to nothing _ .

Ren crossed his arms over his chest. “Struck a nerve, general?”

Liquid fury raced through Hux’s veins at his smugness. “Fuck you, Ren.”

“Would you?”

Hux balked. “What?”

“In some cultures it’s another form of punishment,” Ren said. “Like a beating. Would you force yourself on me, Hux?”

“Never,” Hux said. “The very idea is disgusting. Why would you ever suggest such a thing?”

Ren’s shoulders rose and fell.

Hux scowled at him, still put off by such a repugnant notion. Sex was not a weapon. To use it as such would be dishonorable and base. He would never sink to that level or permit anyone else under his command to do so.

“Is it because fraternization is against your regulations?”

“No! It’s unethical.”

Ren laughed harshly. “Your one to lecture on ethics,  _ Starkiller _ .”

“I did what was necessary for the First Order to secure our victory. What you’re suggesting is  _ never _ necessary.”

“What if I wanted it?”

Hux’s eyes went wide.

“It wouldn’t be forcible, then,” Ren said.

“Are you...propositioning me?” Hux asked, disbelieving. “If so, this is a reprehensible attempt.”

Ren seemed to back down then, though Hux couldn’t see his face.

“Are you going to answer me?” Hux said. “You’ve done an impressive job bringing up all manner of inappropriate things already. It would hardly be the worst if you admitted to wanting me to...indulge you.”

“If I said yes, what would you do?” Ren said.

Hux paused for a moment, then said, “Take off the mask. Let me see you.”

Ren didn’t move immediately. Slowly, though, he reached up and released the catches on the helmet. He drew it off. Hux had seen him before, but he looked at him differently now, appraised him. Unusual as Ren’s features were, Hux liked what he saw.

“Come for a drink tonight,” he said. “Mind your bloody tongue and maybe I’ll consider it.”


	15. I Know You Don't Love Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First sentence: "I know you don't love me!"

“I know you don’t love me!” Kylo said. The lights in his quarters flickered as the rage and hurt rolled off of him in waves. He tried to control it, rein it in, but it was rushing through him, the pain making his chest ache. “But you could at least stop to think what this—whatever this is—does to me.”

Hux was staring at him from across the room, his shirt hanging half open. They had been doing this nearly half a year. At first the frantic touches and fast coupling had been enough, but Kylo had begun to want more. He wanted Hux to tell him things he told no one else. He wanted Hux to trust him, to care about him the way Kylo did him. Hux had come to Kylo for their habitual hurried encounter that night, but Kylo had turned him away. 

“I don’t want...this,” he had said, sitting at the edge of his bed while Hux shucked his coat and threw it onto the single chair in the room.

Hux had paused. “What do you mean ‘this?’ Me?”

“I do. Want you. But not like this. Not quick like you’re ashamed of it.”

“If I was ashamed, I wouldn’t be here, Ren.”

“Then why don’t you ever stay?”

“Stay how?” Hux had asked. “Sleep here?”

“No,” Kylo had said. “Yes. I mean, you hardly even speak to me.”

Hux had eyed him. “You want me to talk to you more? Tell you how good you feel? What I want you to do to me?”

Kylo shook his head. “Just talk. Have a conversation.”

“What is there to talk about?”

“Anything. Everything.” He had looked up at Hux. “Don’t you want to know me?”

Hux had looked at him as if he didn’t understand. “I do. As much as is necessary for this arrangement. What more do you expect?”

“Do you even like me?” Kylo had asked.

“Do you want me to?”

Kylo felt the first tendrils of anger curling in his belly. “You’ve been in my bed, in me, for months, but you don’t care about me at all, do you?”

“I repeat,” Hux had said. “Do you want me to?”

“Yes!” Kylo had snarled. The words spilled from him before he could stop them, “I know you don’t love me, but you could at least stop to think what this—whatever this is—does to me.”

Hux gaped. “You want me to _love_ you?”

Kylo stood, pacing. “No. Yes. I don’t know. I just need more than this.”

“Are you in love with _me_?”

Kylo stopped and turned. He could feel his face burning. “Yes.”

Hux came to him slowly. He reached out and trailed his fingertips along Kylo’s jaw. “Why didn’t you say this before?”

“Because I know you don’t care about me.”

“Oh, Ren, you fool. Of course I do.”

Kylo’s breath caught. “What?”

“You never indicated you had any particular affection for me,” Hux said, “so I had no cause to voice my own for you.”

“You could have said something anyway,” Kylo said.

Hux lifted a shoulder and let it fall again. “I am not often free with my feelings. I never considered it a fault before, but I can see now that it might be in this case.”

Kylo swallowed heavily, his mind fuzzy as the rage waned, replaced with a hopeful lightness he had never known before. “ _Do you_ love me, Hux?”

“I do.”


	16. I Don't Have A Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First sentence: "I don't have a choice, [name]."

“I don’t have a choice, Hux. I have to go to him.”

“I know,” Hux said, resting his folded arms on his knees. He was exhausted, this being his thirtieth hour without sleep. If he hadn’t injected himself with a stim before going to the medical bay, he would have collapsed. The medic on duty at Kylo Ren’s bedside had given Hux a concerned look, but at his snapped order to leave them, she’d scurried out.

“I know you have to go,” he said. “It’s just...you’re barely healed. You just came out of the bacta tank.”

Hux had delivered him there himself after he had recovered a wounded and barely conscious Ren from the forest on Starkiller Base. The blood had been vibrant as it stained the snow around him. And his face. Raw fury had roiled in Hux’s gut at the sight. Whoever had done this to Ren—his Kylo—would suffer immeasurably before they died.

“I’m all right,” Ren said.

“You can barely walk,” said Hux, looking up at him.

Ren regarded him with his dark eyes. “My master has sent for me. I must complete my training.”

“Your body can’t take the strain of combat yet.”

“Hux.” He extended his hand.

Slowly rising, Hux went to him and took it. Ren brought Hux’s knuckles to his lips, kissing them gently.

“You can’t afford to worry about me,” he said. “You have enough to contend with after…”

“After I let the Order’s greatest asset be destroyed?”

Ren cocked his head slightly, the bandage across his face stark white even against his pale skin. “The weapon wasn’t the greatest asset.”

“No? It would have destroyed the Resistance in one strike, saving our troops and giving us a decisive victory. Nothing else we have compares to that.”

“You were instrumental in the construction of Starkiller,” Ren said. “You successfully orchestrated countless missions in the Outer Rim. Don’t you see?”

“See what?” Hux sighed.

“ _ You’re _ the asset. Not the machines, the ships. It would all be worthless if the Order didn’t have you the lead its armies.”

Hux’s chest tightened with inadvertent pride. He tamped it down, though. “I’m hardly that. I failed the Supreme Leader and the Order.”

“So did I, but there’s no one else who can do what I can. The same is true of you. Snoke won’t make you suffer for this.”

“He should.”

“I won’t let him,” Ren said.

“You can’t countermand his orders. You’re his apprentice still, not his equal.”

“I don’t care. I won’t allow him to hurt you.”

Hux blinked down at him. “I hardly think it will come to physical punishment.”

“There are other ways of inflicting pain,” Ren said.

“I’d imagine there are. I’ll face whatever comes.”

“No. I can’t…” Ren looked away.

With two fingers at his chin, Hux turned his face back. “Can’t what, Kylo?”

“I can’t bear it. If my master punishes either of us, it should be me. He can’t have you.”

“He already has me,” Hux said. “I am his servant, and I will not defy him.”

“Then I will. I don’t have a choice in that, either. If I have to choose, I choose you.”

Hux cupped his damaged, dear face. “Why?”

“I think you know.”

“Yes.” Leaning down, Hux pressed a kiss to his mouth.


	17. Seduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First sentence: "if i didn’t know any better, i’d say you’re trying to seduce me."

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re trying to seduce me,” Hux said, removing his leather gloves.

Kylo Ren, unmasked and dressed in a simple tunic and pants rather than his robes, stood across from him holding out a tumbler of whiskey. A single cube of ice floated in it.

“Bringing me here at such a late hour,” Hux said, taking the glass, “and plying me with drink.”

Ren regarded him steadily, clasping his hands behind his back.

“You’re not partaking?” Hux asked, raising his glass.

“I prefer to keep my mind unclouded,” Ren replied.

“And yet you went out of your way to acquire an admittedly excellent whiskey for me to enjoy during...whatever this is? Why?”

“It’s customary, isn’t it, when you have guests?”

Hux’s brows rose. “You consider me your guest?”

“Yes,” said Ren. “You’re in my quarters. And you accepted my invitation.”

Hux considered the message more of a summons, as it had hardly offered him the chance to refuse. And it had been far from courteously worded, stating only the location and the time.

“I suppose I did,” he said, “but I presumed this was business. If you wished to socialize, you easily could have met me in the officers’ lounge. You wouldn’t have had to trouble yourself about the whiskey in that case.”

“You don’t drink what they serve there,” Ren said. “It’s not good enough.”

“How exactly do you know that?” Hux asked.

“You have clear routines, general. It’s not difficult to identify them. When you go to the lounge, you drink plain tonic water. Why?”

“You might say I like to keep my mind unclouded when I am in the presence of my men.”

“And yet you’ll drink with me,” Ren said.

Hux took another sip of the whiskey. “You are not a subordinate. And I expected to share a drink.”

Ren moved faster than Hux expected, crossing the distance between them and taking Hux’s glass from his hand. He emptied it, the muscles of his throat working as he swallowed.

“That’s not precisely what I meant,” Hux said.

Ren turned back to the table behind him. He poured three fingers of whiskey and handed the tumbler back to Hux. Hux looked at it before taking a small sip.

Ren eyed him. “If this was what you said...would it work?”

Hux nearly choked on the whiskey. “A seduction? You want to know if I could be seduced like this?”

“That was the question, yes.”

“I...no.”

“Oh,” said Ren, looking down.

Hux’s mouth fell open. “Ren, this isn’t...it can’t be…you can’t want…” He drank down the rest of his whiskey in one burning gulp. “Are you attempting to pursue me?”

Ren said nothing, but there was a hint of color at the tips of his ears, and that was admission enough.

Hux looked at him, from his plain, black clothes and dark hair to his downcast eyes. He appeared strangely vulnerable, this powerful, inimitable man abashed. Hux was struck by him in this incarnation more than he ever had been in his more fearsome form.

Taking a breath, he set down his glass and took a step toward Ren. “I would be willing to entertain the idea of getting to know you better, Kylo.” Reaching out with fingertips still cool from the glass, he raised Ren’s chin. “Is that what you want?”

“Yes.”

“Then ask me sit down,” said Hux, “and speak with me for a time. After a few more conversations, we can discuss what it might take to properly seduce me.”


	18. No One Needs to Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First sentence: "No on needs to know"

“No one needs to know.”

Kylo trembles at the quiet words, at Hux’s warm breath against his ear. He’s pressed up against the wall in a shadowed corner, one of few aboard the  _ Finalizer _ . Hux’s left hand is at his neck, his right palming between Kylo’s legs.

“I know you want this,” Hux says. “I’ve seen the way you look at me.”

Kylo can’t deny it. Hux captivates him. He’s ruthless and determined in ways Kylo has never seen in anyone else. He has a singular purpose: to defeat the Resistance, crush the New Republic, and seize power in the name of the First Order. And his bearing, the way he carries himself without a modicum of self-doubt, is breathtaking.

However, Hux had never cast more than a disdainful look at Kylo. He admonished him for his temper and openly challenged his authority. Kylo had no reason to believe that Hux ever would have wanted him. And yet here they stand, faces scant inches apart while Hux releases the buttons of Kylo’s trousers.

“Why are you doing this?” Kylo manages to say.

“Because I want to see you come apart under my hands,” Hux replies. “I want to make you give in to me.”

Anger flares up alongside the desire. Hux plans to make him look weak, but Kylo Ren is at the mercy of no one.

“No,” he growls.

“I’ll make it good for you,” Hux says. “I’ll have what I need and so will you.”

“You don’t know what I need.”

Hux’s fingers curl around him. “I think I do.”

Kylo bites back a groan. “Fuck you, Hux.”

He laughs. “Hardly. There’s no point in resisting, Ren. Give me this. It’s not as if you get nothing out of it.”

Kylo’s resolve wavers. “No one will know?”

“Only us.”

“Then do it. Take what you want.”

Hux smiles. “Good boy.”


	19. You're Ridiculously Comfortable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First sentence: “You’re ridiculously comfortable"

“You’re ridiculously comfortable,” Kylo said as he rested his head in Hux’s lap. He was sprawled out on the sofa in the apartment they had shared since their sophomore year of college, when they had moved out of the dorm room they had been assigned as freshmen.

This closeness was new, though. Six weeks ago Hux had walked into the apartment to see their small dining room table set with a full meal. There had even been candles. Kylo had been standing next to it, his usual jeans and metal band t-shirt replaced by black slacks and a red button down.

“Hey,” he had said.

“What’s this?” Hux had asked, adjusting his glasses. “It’s not my birthday for another three months.”

“Yeah, I know. This isn’t about that.” Kylo had looked down for a moment before he forced his gaze back up to meet Hux’s. “I figured if I asked you to go out to dinner with me you would have laughed it off. So, I kind of gave you no choice.”

“We go out to dinner all the time,” Hux had said. “I would have gone with you.”

Kylo had come to him then and taken his hands. “I don’t mean it like that. I mean I wanted to take you out. On a date.”

Hux’s eyes had widened.

“Look,” Kylo had said, “I know we’ve been friends for three years and I wouldn’t change that for anything. Except for this. I want to be with you.”

“Oh, Ren. You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”

Kylo had nodded. “If you don’t want it, that’s okay. I just needed to tell you.”

“Of course, I want it,” Hux had said. “I fell for you two months into our first semester.”

“Fell for me?”

Hux had sighed and, freeing one of his hands, laid it on Kylo’s cheek. “I’m in love with you.”

Kylo had grinned like a fool and pulled Hux into his arms.

“Comfortable for you maybe,” Hux said, looking down at his boyfriend’s upturned face, “but I’m losing circulation in my legs.”

“Then come here,” Kylo said. He sat up and slid his hands under Hux’s knees. He extended his legs and tugged Hux down to lie on the cushions. Kylo wrapped himself around him, nuzzling his shoulder.

“We barely fit on here,” Hux said, though it a half-hearted protest.

“You complain too much.”

“You’re needy.”

“You like it.”

Hux blew out a breath, stroking Kylo’s soft hair. “Yes, I do.”


	20. Guardian II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Send me a "Guardian" and I'll write a drabble about one character swearing to always keep the other safe

It comes on suddenly; the tightness in his gut, the familiar ache that settles over him. It’s not physical pain, but he still suffers. He is behind his desk, arms folded. It steadies him. His glass of whiskey is untouched even an hour after he poured it. The emotions are irrational, he knows this, but he can’t help them in these moments of quiet agony.

He has put everything into his career, been trained to lead men since he was little more than a child. His stormtrooper program had performed to specifications for years, and the defection of one trooper hardly damned it entirely, but Hux can’t eschew the feeling of deficiency. He can’t abide mediocrity, and anything less than complete success is unacceptable.

“To be middling is worse than failure, boy,” his father had told him. “Either excel or fall by the wayside so your betters can rise.”

He rubs his face, breathing shakily. He’s dedicated himself completely to the program, worked tirelessly to realize it, but it’s not enough. He won’t be recognized for its effectiveness, but for this failure. Middling, middling. Even in the face of his rise to the rank of general, of the trust the Supreme Leader puts in him, he’s no more than adequate. It disgusts him, torments him.

A chime announces that he has a visitor. He presses the key to admit them, though he has no desire to see anyone. Ren strides into the room.

“Kylo,” Hux says, weary.

Ren stills, cocking his head slightly. “There’s something troubling you.”

“It’s nothing of consequence.”

Ren raises his hands to his helmet and releases the catches. He lifts it away. “You’re in pain.”

“I told you to stay out of my head.”

“It’s coming off of you in waves. I don’t need to see your mind to feel it.”

Hux sighs. Ren sets his helmet down on the corner of Hux’s desk. He removes his gloves. “Tell me.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does. A great deal. Tell me, Hux.”

“I’m unexceptional,” he says. “My work is second-rate. I gave my all and yet it’s not enough.”

Ren regards him steadily. “You expect too much of yourself. Look at what you’ve achieved. Does that count for nothing?”

“There could always be more.”

Ren comes around the side of the desk and kneels at Hux’s side. “Yes, but it can’t be done all at once. And not every aspect of success is determined by how hard you’re willing to work or what abilities you possess. There are elements of chance that you can’t control. You can’t fault yourself for that.” He runs a hand down Hux’s shoulder.

“I know,” says Hux. “And I shouldn’t let that affect me, but it’s difficult to control. This uncertainty is a weakness I have succumbed to in the past as well.”

“You’re permitted weaknesses.”

“I shouldn’t be.”

Ren touches Hux’s face, his fingertips warm. “It will pass, but until it does I’ll stay with you. Come sit on the bed.”

Hux allows himself to be led, and when they sit, Ren wraps his arms around him.

“You’re a good commander,” he says, “capable and admired. Your efforts are appreciated, your talents recognized. I admire you and so do many others. And I will remind you of that as often you need it. I’ll spare you any pain I can.”

Hux rests his head against Ren’s shoulder. “You can’t shield me from my own self-doubt, Kylo.”

“If I have to protect you from yourself, I will. Always.”

Hux turns and presses a brief kiss to Ren’s lips. “I love you.”

Ren holds him close. “And I you.”


	21. I didn't realize I needed your permission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW. Blow job time.

“I didn’t realize I needed your permission,” Ren snarled, his voice harsh and mechanical through the vocoder in his helmet.

Hux deliberately did not look up from the datapad he was holding. He scrolled over the reports from Captain Phasma, whose unit had just returned from a mission planetside, pretending to focus on it rather than the man looming over him where he sat behind his desk. “In this case you do,” he said. “The Supreme Leader put me in command of this operation, and I will not have you compromising it.”

Ren clenched his fists at his sides, radiating fury. “You can’t keep me aboard this ship.”

“I can, in fact,” said Hux, flicking to the next report on his screen. “I’ve had your shuttle grounded.”

The flat of Ren’s hand landed hard on the surface of Hux’s desk. Hux looked up at him slowly, steadily. He would not be intimidated by Ren’s posturing. He never had been, not in the five years they had been serving together on the _Finalizer_. His black robes and mask had an effect on the crew to be sure, but Hux did not find it affecting. He was not taken in by a clumsy attempt to create a forbidding presence.

“You can’t do that,” Ren said.

Hux shrugged one shoulder. “Take it up with the Supreme Leader if you object.”

Ren gave a low growl and pushed back from the desk. Hux returned to his report, thinking the conversation over. However, a moment later he heard the hiss of depressurization.

He had seen Ren’s face before—youthful and oddly graceful in its asymmetry—but it had been a year or more ago. They had been in the audience chamber then. Hux had come in after Ren and had found him kneeling before the projected image of Snoke. When he had risen, he had turned to Hux and met his eyes. If he was affected by baring what he took such great pains to hide, he didn’t show it. He had allowed Hux to study him, saying nothing. When, at last, Hux looked away, he had put the helmet back on and left the room.

Hux looked up now as Ren removed the mask. His appearance was the same, his expression schooled despite the rage he had exhibited just minutes before. Hux waited, uncertain what to expect.

“What do you want?” Ren said. His voice was deep, resonant. The vocoder distorted it, but did not change it as much as Hux might have expected.

“Excuse me?” Hux asked.

Ren took a step closer. “What do you want from me?”

Hux’s brows knit. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You aren’t keeping me here because you’re afraid I’ll compromise your mission,” Ren said, prowling in long strides up to the desk again. “You know I won’t. I never have. So, what do you want from me before you’ll let me go?”

Hux wet his lips with the tip of his tongue. What Ren said was true enough; he did not get in the way of the troopers on the ground when he went planetside. He had his own objectives, most of which Hux was never privy to. They worked together ostensibly, but they rarely cooperated on any operations. Hux had no real reason to ground Ren, save for his own satisfaction in denying him.

“I want you to do what I tell you to and then to leave,” he said. “I have work to do.”

“Do you ever not work?” Ren asked as he set his helmet on the corner of Hux’s desk.

“I _do_ sleep, Ren.”

He trailed his fingers along the edge of the desktop as he came around to Hux’s side. Hux resisted the impulse to retreat.

“You take no personal time at all, do you?” Ren said.

Hux frowned, his patience with this entire conversation growing thin. “What’s your point?”

Ren stopped with the tips of his boots mere centimeters from Hux’s. “What if I did something for you? Would you let me go?”

“What could you possibly have to offer me?” Hux scoffed.

A sly smile touched Ren’s lips as he dropped to his knees. “Something to relax you,” he said as he ran his palms over Hux’s knees and along his lean thighs.

“Ren,” he said, the word pinched in his throat. “What the hell are you doing?”

Ren’s fingertips trailed along the fly of Hux’s trousers. “Asking your permission.”

The blood in Hux’s stomach dropped to his groin, making his cock twitch. “You can’t.” A firm tug at his belt, releasing the catch.

“Why not?”

Hux swallowed, clutching at the arms of his chair. Ren had undone the button at his waist and was lowering the zipper. He looked up at Hux with wide eyes.

“Why not?”

Hux fought for breath, feeling himself hardening. He had never thought of Ren like this, never wanted him. He was an annoyance that Hux would have liked to have been rid of and would gladly punish for all the damage he had done to the _Finalizer_ over the years, but he had not imagined putting him on his knees in this way. But now that he was there, and of his own volition, Hux was responding.

“You’re debasing yourself,” he managed to say. “It’s pathetic.”

Ren traced Hux’s length through the fabric of his underwear. “You haven’t said no.”

Hux nearly shuddered at the touch. It had been nearly eighteen Imperial standard months since anyone had had their hands on him. Ren’s were still gloved, but Hux found the thought of feeling the leather against his skin even more arousing.

Reaching down, he twisted his fingers in Ren’s hair and pulled until he turned his face up. “Do you want this?” Hux said.

Another smile. “Yes.”

“Then get it done.”

Ren had the audacity to laugh. “This isn’t something you’re supposed to hurry, General.”

Hux yanked his hair again, making him hiss. “I’d advise you to stop talking now, Ren.”

“Yes,” he said. “Sir.”

Hux felt the raw kick of desire in his gut. He groaned as Ren reached into his shorts and drew his cock out. He was already half-hard and aching. The supple leather of Ren’s gloves had him filling out even more as Ren stroked him.

“Get on with it,” he said between clenched teeth.

Ren thumbed the head of his cock once and then pulled his hand away. He rested it in the crook of Hux’s thigh and then, meeting Hux’s gaze, took him into his mouth. Hux cursed aloud, pushing his hips up into the heat. Ren gagged. Hux didn’t bother to apologize, but he stilled and let Ren suck him.

Ren’s tongue trailed along the sensitive underside of Hux’s cock with each bob of his head. His slick lips were wrapped tight around him, red and plush. He was looking up at Hux through dark lashes, making crude, greedy sounds that were both repulsive and captivating. He was messy and wet, but took Hux deep into his throat and swallowed. Hux cried out as he came, spilling himself into Ren’s mouth. Ren worked him through it until Hux pulled him away.

Ren sat back on his heels, making no attempt to wipe the glistening saliva from his lips and chin. It should have been disgusting, but Hux was compelled to lean down and kiss him, tasting himself.

“Well?” Ren said. “Do I have your permission to leave the _Finalizer_ , sir?”

Hux nodded. “You do.”


End file.
